Disabled Beersheba Family Spent Their Savings on Emergency Evacuation During War

During Operation “Roar of the Lion,” Beersheba came under heavy Iranian missile fire, with direct hits on apartment buildings, casualties and injuries, and hundreds of residents evacuated. For Doron Suissa, 53, and his two adult daughters with disabilities, an air-raid siren is not a simple dash to a shelter: his older daughter uses a wheelchair and has cerebral palsy and an intellectual disability, while the younger daughter has an intellectual disability, epilepsy and a rare genetic disease. Their home has no protected room, and the nearest public shelter is about 300 meters away.

Suissa said that before the operation he tried to prepare by saving 42,000 shekels to build a protected room at home. When the first alarm sounded on a Saturday morning, the family ran to a neighbor, then searched for evacuation help, submitting letters and approvals to welfare authorities, the National Insurance Institute and the Home Front Command. He said they were sent back and forth without an answer. With no response, they evacuated themselves to accessible hotels, moving between Eilat, Netanya and Eilat again, while the savings meant for the protected room were exhausted.

The turning point came when Suissa heard about the Purple Vest initiative of Nitzan Israel, an accessibility nonprofit, while staying in a displaced-persons hotel in Eilat. After an employee helped him fill out the details, the organization called the next day and arranged transportation and an accessible hotel with a protected room in the Dead Sea area. The family was funded by the group for more than 22 days, and most of that time they stayed in a hotel apartment with a protected room in Beersheba, about 400 meters from their home.

Suissa said the staff were “angels” who treated the family “from the heart.” The Purple Vest program helps evacuate and support people with disabilities and elderly residents during emergencies through a pre-registered emergency database, accessible transportation, accessible lodging, and a hotline by phone and WhatsApp at 054-7787108. Nitzan Israel says the database lets it act immediately when emergencies begin, rather than spending critical time verifying needs after a family is already in distress.